NIGERIAN NOTCH

 B y Francis Okoye  Tell me any Anambra Politician Who Has Empowered His Followers From Boys To Men, I Will Show You An Ifeanyi Ubah Tell me any Governorship Aspirant who has so much stake in the State by the volume of his personal Investments he has cut across the State, and I will show you an Ifeanyi Ubah. Tell me any Anambra Elite who is down to earth and surrounds himself with mainly the Youths and the poor instead of old men and the rich and I will show you an Ifeanyi Ubah.  All Sen Ubah's Personal Investments have over 85 percent of its staff as Youths. For his love for Anambra Youths, Sen Ifeanyi Ubah was the only Anambra born Politician who came out during the #EndSARS Protest at the risk of his life to calm protesting Youths down across the State. Such a man If elected Governor would go extra mile to attract Investments into the State and invoke policies that would create more opportunities for our youths and women in Anambra State to be gainfully engaged.  ...

The Governorship aspirant under the People's Democratic Party  (PDP), Engr Chris Azubogu, on Thursday inspected the damage at the Nnewi timber and palm oil markets gutted by fire, urging for urgent investigations into the cause of the fire outbreak and supports who victims of the fire._ Engr Azubogu*, representing Nnewi North/Nnewi South/Ekwusigo Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, lamented the level of loss incurred by the traders especially as they were still struggling to recover from the COVID-19 economy and 2020 lockdown which had businesses worst hit by the uncertainties of the business environment. *Azubogu said “it is regrettable that we are at this point at a time like this. At a time our people are struggling to recover from COVID-19 ushered uncertainties that shut down almost the entire 2020, and to witness this fire outbreak on our major markets is so unfortunate."* _He stated that his concern now is on how these markets can be rebuilt, reduce the...

Valentine Ozigbo, the leading Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship aspirant for Anambra 2021 election slated for Saturday, November 6, 2021, has applauded the national leadership of the party for being pragmatic and proactive as demonstrated in the early release of the timetable for the primary election.  The PDP on Wednesday, February 17, 2021 published the timetable for the upcoming primary gubernatorial elections and other related activities. According to the document, the PDP’s primary is scheduled to hold on Saturday, June 26, 2021.  While addressing journalists in his campaign office in Udoka Estate, Awka on Thursday, February 18, 2021, Mr Ozigbo remarked, “The timely release of the timetable and schedule of activities leading up to the PDP’s primary election on June 26 [2021], speaks volumes about our party’s preparedness and determination to rescue Anambra State from the maladministration of the incumbent APGA government.” He continued, “The timetable gives room...

The internet a few moments ago, was awash with the presumed decamping of Dr Ikedi Ohakim the former governor of Imo state. A development he has promptly debunked. In a press release made available to Nigerian Notch Newspaper, signed by his aide, Barr Austine Otuokere, however denied the said decamping to APC of the former governor. The press release read thus "His Excellency, Dr. Ikedi Ohakim, has been inundated by calls and inquiries from friends, political associates and family members over  his purported decampment to the All Peoples Congress, APC. His Excellency, however, wishes to state, quite unequivocally, that he is yet to decamp to the APC or any other political party at the moment. The release further stated that His Excellency, takes full cognizance of the fact that the current political atmosphere in the country gives room for speculations, but camp changing by a person of his caliber and pedigree is not something he could smuggle into the internet. Continuning, it sai...

  By Ugochukwu Ifeanyi. With the transition from an exporting/production nation in the 60s to the importing/consumption mode of Nigeria, it has become increasingly difficult to compete favourably in the global market as well as guaranteeing a better quality of life owing to the dearth of industries and SMEs between the 80s and 90s.  Now reliant on importation, importers struggle with making profits owing to the fact that the consumption of the goods relies heavily on the economic power of the Nation, which is quite low at the moment so there's no money to shop, which means incredibly low sales coupled with the outrageous taxation at the FG, State and LG levels, which further means the importer is forced to hike the prices of the products in order to meet up  Sen Dr Ifeanyi Ubah's motion is superb and timely especially now that the economy is languishing under the crushing effects of the pandemic, reducing the taxation on imported goods is very vital to the recovery of the...

Senator Dr Patrick Ifeanyi Ubah has moved a motion on the urgent need to checkmate  exorbitant increase and unjustifiable shipping fees charged by shipping companies on Nigerian bound cargoes. Senator Ubah on the floor of the Senate today argued that Nigeria is an import driven economy with excessive dependence on imports for consumption and capital goods. He stated  that the shipping industry, is key in facilitating continuity of economic activities in the country by ensuring sustained supply chains to industries, transportation of essential goods. Senator Ubah raised  concerns over vessels coming to Nigerian ports and the attendant long queue, when compared to other countries. He also raised further concern regarding the fact that the cost of shipping goods into Nigerian ports is the highest in the world, with the figure for Apapa Port costing more than thrice to that of Tema, Ghana, and five times higher than Durban port in South Africa.  He expressed worry over t...

Valentine Ozigbo, a Nigerian business mogul and philanthropist, has stressed the importance of emulating Christ Jesus by living selflessly, as Christians worldwide mark Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the Lenten period, on Wednesday, February 17, 2021.   Ash Wednesday is a day Christians consider holy and observe it with prayer and fasting. Roman Catholics, Anglican, Methodists, and some other orthodox denominations mark their foreheads with ashes to symbolise both death and repentance. It is the first activity leading up to Easter.  Mr Ozigbo made these remarks to journalists as he left St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church, Awka, where he observed the Ash Wednesday evening mass. He urged Christians all over the world to emulate the virtues of obedience, righteous living, and sacrifice, which the Lord Jesus Christ exemplified during his time on earth.  According to Ozigbo, who is the immediate past President and Group CEO of Transcorp Plc, Lent's sacrificial period pre...

Valentine Ozigbo, the immediate past president and group CEO of Transcorp Plc, has congratulated the renowned Nigerian economist, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, on her appointment as director-general of the World Trade Organization (WTO).  Dr Okonjo-Iweala has served as Nigeria's finance minister and foreign affairs minister from 2003 till 2006. Most recently, she was the country's finance minister and co-ordinating minister of the economy which she served from 2011 till 2015. Her rich resume includes a 25-year stint at the World Bank, where she rose to the number two position of managing director. She was appointed as the director-general of the WTO on Monday, February 15, 2021, after representatives of its 164 member countries held a vote. In a statement issued on Tuesday, February 16, 2021, Mr Ozigbo lauded Dr Okonjo-Iweala as "an icon of excellence, a trailblazer, and a world-shaper." "The world is going through a peculiar time in which the capacities of economies are ...

By Dr Uche Diala  Each time appointments are made, most of us quickly scroll down the list looking for names of our tribesmen or names that sound like our tribal names. No other considerations. Only extreme selfishness. Next we start posting, tweeting, retweeting and reposting ignorant propositions and lamentations. We conveniently forget that there are over 250 ethnic groups in Nigeria speaking over 500 languages. So for our individual tribe, there are at least another 249 tribes and ethnic groups in Nigeria. What if all those other tribesmen reason and act like we do each time we see a list of appointments or infrastructures? Are we not selfishly marginazilizing all those other tribes and ethnic groups, simply because we are called 'majority tribe'. When we look at appointments made and or projects even from a geopolitical zones perspective, we also quickly forget that there are 6 zones in total in Nigeria and each of those zones has as much right to those appointments and de...

Imo State government yesterday, graphically painted a picture of how the former governor of the state, Owelle Rochas Okorocha attempted to dupe the people of their university after N20 billion of public funds had been invested in the institution by the state government. In a world Press conference in Owerri, the state Commissioner for Information and Strategy Hon  Declan Emelumba said the current government moved to recover Eastern Palm University, Ogboko from Okorocha when it became obvious that the former governor wanted to fraudulently appropriate the institution to himself. Displaying documents including approval from the National Universities Commission to authenticate the state ownership of the university, Chief Emelumba asked Okorocha to apologize to  Imo people for attempting to steal their commonwealth. According to him,”this is one of the most elaborate  and devious scam to dupe an entire state of their patrimony using the instrumentality of state power” He said...